Long Walks

On Saturday my husband was working on my Mom's basement. He got a late start and decided to use my SUV to haul tools and materials back and forth from the hardware store. (It wouldn't be fun to try to cram it all in his Mustang)

So needless to say I was stranded at home with no way to get anywhere. This is when I really wish I knew how to drive a stick shift car. Aargh

I didn't want to spend another day home alone with Little Miss so I decided to take a walk. Yes I live in the Midwest and yes it was chilly yesterday but we got all bundled up and where fine!

My Mom's house is 4 miles away so we just started walking.

We walked and walked and walked some more.

I prayed to God and thanked him for all of my blessings. I gave Him all of my frustrations. I just laid them at His feet. I looked around at all of God's beauty that He gives to us each day.

I gave God my concerns for the future. I gave him my hopes and dreams. I prayed about our finances and told Him that while I am ok with the struggle lost days some days I get down about it all.

I looked at my beautiful daughter and thanked God for answering my prayers.

By the time I stopped to really focus where I was we had walked all the way to my Mom's house.

The long walk was exactly what we needed. Little Miss needed the sleep and I needed to be lay everything at God's feet.

Here is Little Miss dozing during our walk.

To those naysayers ...

I am the type of person who tries not to let other people's comments get to me. I feel like I have heard it all.

After Little Man was born I knew that I wanted to get my own place at some point. I was living with my mom and I knew that it was time to make a move. I talked to Little Mans dad about planning on moving out and he said "you will never move out of your moms house and live on your own".

He told me I couldn't and I did.

6 months later I purchased my condo and moved before Little Man turned 5.

When I was going to school my financial aide did not cover all of my tuition. Due to the fact my father left my family when I was in high school my mother had horrible credit. When he left I took out credit cards to help pay the bills so I didn't have the worlds greatest credit either. I asked a family member to co-sign a loan for me. She said "I know I am going to regret this".

I graduated college and while some months I struggle to pay this loan. I am trying to make sure she never regretted this decision.

Last year when My Mister proposed I wanted to get married pretty quickly. We had been dating for 4 years and there was no reason to wait. (While some people think we got married because I was pregnant that was not the case!) I was told that getting married in less than 4 months would be impossible. People said that I wouldn't be able to have a bridal shower or a bachelorette party because it was just happening too quickly.

Well I had the wedding of my dreams 3 1/2 months after our engagement. I had a wonderful bridal shower and a very pampered bachelorette party.

I am not sure why people try to put others down. Instead of spreading negative thoughts to hurt one another why not bring them up with words of encouragement? Sometimes people need a little hope and faith. Sometimes people just need a little support.

Tonight had been hard. I sometimes let these words rattle around in my head and get under my skin. The words reach to core and bring me down all over again as if they were just said.

I am praying tonight for these words to leave my mind. I am giving my fears and hurts to God because only he can heal the wounds.

To the naysayers ... I am praying for you as we'll.

What else can I do but Pray! (Money Struggles)

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Money is never fun to discuss but it is such an important topic in the household.

I have been reading the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider (find the book here) and I feel that I am finally able to understand how living simply (with finances and in the household) can provide peace. In this book Tsh Oxenreider says "Don't assume your money will automatically be spent where it should because it doesn't have a mind of its own. Cash is a tool, and it needs to be treated as such. Use it wisely to build, to repair, and to create the things that matter most to you."

Umm ... wow ... that really hit me. We don't have a budget at all. We spend randomly and then wonder why our bills are behind and unpaid.

Then I remembered a blog post I read by Casey Wiegand's that was completely honest about her families money struggles and why they are still making the choices they do. (You can read her post here ... I highly recommend it!)

Again I realized that money is a tool and doesn't necessarily give us the life that we want.

Right now in our household money is TIGHT! Very very tight!

And yet we are not really doing anything about it.

We assume that if we made more money and that if I didn't get laid off we would be fine.

But without a budget I know that we would just spend more and not in an appropriate way.

Since I am Type A I sat down and wrote out our income and our expenses. In order to pay everything (well just the necessities) we are still short $137 per month.

After I wrote out the budget I made a list of things we could do to save money/make money such as ...
*Cut down on Dan's 401k (temporarily)
*Cut down our cell phone bills
*Sell some unused and new items we have in our home
*Drive less - therefore saving gas

Lastly, I wrote down things Dan and I are dreaming about ...
*Buying baby furniture
*Buying a new king size mattress
*Buy new living room furniture
*Go on vacation

(By the way Dan was sleeping as I did all of this ... )

Now I am not sure that this will work. I know that Dan is not a big fan of budgeting (he thinks it is like a straight jacket). I have also asked Dan to allow me to take over the bills to give him some relief.

So what else is there left to do ... but PRAY!

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I am committing to pray for Dan for 20 minutes per day for 31 days.

He is the leader of our family. He needs strength to make it through his day. He needs God's guidance now more than ever.

I printed out a 31 Days of Prayers for your Husband and grabbed a notebook to write down my prayers in. I am hoping that I can give it to Dan at the end of 31 days.

When he wakes up this morning he will find a few tiny notes, a budget, a copy of Casey Wiegand's honest financial post, my prayers for him, and my notebook.

What have you prayed for continuously lately?

Are you struggling with your finances?

Do you want to commit to pray for your husband for 31 days?

Can I pray for you in any way?

I can't wait to see what doors God opens for us with this 31 day journey.

God is all around us

He is in the beauty of the sky.

He is in the color of the trees.

His light shines on us when we don’t expect it or deserve it.

He can be found in a laugh among friends.

He can be found in the silliness of a lazy afternoon.

He can be found in a chat between an Uncle and his Nephew.

God shows His love for us everywhere we go. Take the time to find Him. Take the time to love Him. 

We Are Moving

After months and months of prayers from everyone … we officially have rented a townhome and will be moving THIS Saturday.

I feel extremely grateful to be surrounded by so many people who prayed for us, loved on us, and stuck with us through such a rough and tumble time.

I felt defeated for a long time and never thought that we would find a place to go. I started preparing for the worst and decided to email Jacob’s principal.

I informed him that we tried unsuccessfully to find a house in district for Jacob to start at his school. He told me to keep him informed and that he would work with me to get Jacob enrolled. (This was Monday morning.)

On Monday evening, we were informed that we were approved to rent a townhome in Jacob’s school district.

This was GREAT news and just what we were hoping for.

But … the security deposit was $500 more than we had anticipated.

On Tuesday morning, I went in and met with the homeowner to sign the lease and hand over the security deposit.

Our new landlord is a pastor. He has been the senior pastor of the church in town for 18 years.

Once the lease was signed and his realtor left the room. I told him that we prayed for this house. He smiled.

After the lease was signed we directly went to Jacob’s school and registered him.

On Wednesday morning, I dropped Jacob off for his first day of second grade.

Jacob has the teacher he hoped for and is very excited for school this year. Most of his friends are in his class and he says this is going to be his best year yet.

On Thursday evening, Jacob started soccer practice.

And … Saturday he officially had his first game.

Sunday we finally celebrated my brother's college graduation.

And today … I started back to school. I cannot believe that everything has fallen into place. I had my doubts. I doubted that God would find us a place to live.

I doubted Him.

But God once again showed up and showed Himself to me. He showed me to lean on Him on when everything in this world is on shaky ground. He showed me that He takes care of me and my needs. (Side note: Can anyone tell me the verse in the Bible that talks about how He takes care of the birds and their needs and how we are more important than birds? I do not know where it is and I would like to have it.) He showed me that when all else fails I still have Him and that He loves me.

Why I doubt Him? I may never understand. But God has once again provided. I am in awe of all He does for me.

Thank you so much for praying for us. I am truly grateful.

 

Explanation

The other day while Jacob and I were in the car he asked me a very serious question for a child his age. He asked me, "If God is supposed to be my friend and I can't see Him, How do I play with Him?" For the life of me I could not come up with a good response. How lovely was that question.

It has really bothered me that I could not give him an answer. As I thought long and hard about his question I got to thinking. I can't answer that question because I don't tend to think about God like my friend. I want to think of Him that way but I am just not.

I think of God as an authority figure. I think of Him as someone I must obey. But I honestly want to be His friend I just don't know how.

This afternoon at church Pastor Ron was sharing with us how to disclose our struggles and past/present sins to others. (If you would like to watch the sermon, click here.)

So tonight, I am going to disclose one of my many sins to you. I don't spend enough time with God. I put Him at the bottom of my to-do list and most days I never get to cross Him off my list. (Ok, I know that spending time with God isn't something I need to cross off my list but I am just saying.)

Starting tomorrow, I am going to wake up early and put God on the top of my list and spend time with Him. In the Bible it says to meet God in the morning. So that is what I am going to do.

Please pray for me to fight the urge and sleep in. I really want and need to make God a priority in my life.

If anyone has something they want me to pray for please leave a comment.

Walk in His Strength,
Mindy